Legacy Awards Ceremony & Show

University of the Arts Arts Bank, 601 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147

The Celebration of Black Arts Legacy Awards Ceremony & Show is one of the festival’s biggest highlights. The Legacy Awards will honor phenomenal contributors to Black literature, art, and community, featuring The Urban Guerilla Orchestra as our House Band, the lovely Dyana Williams as our host and many more special performances and tributes. Please join us as we celebrate the following extraordinary individuals!

Dress: Cocktail Attire

Cost: $35 General Admission, $25 Groups of 5+, $50 VIP

2017 Legacy Awards Honorees

Bryan Collier - Bryan Collier is an award-winning writer and illustrator, known best for his work on children's books such as Uptown, Freedom River by Doreen Rappaport, and Rosa by Nikki Giovanni. He has won both the Coretta Scott King Award (six times), the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award, and is a four-time Caldecott honor recipient. We are proud to honor him as our 2017 Awardee for Excellence in Visual Literacy!

Award for Excellence in Visual Literacy

Ukee Washington - Ukee Washington is a beloved TV personality in Philadelphia, and a current news anchor for CBS3. He has previously been honored by the City of Philadelphia with their Living Legends award for his contributions to Black History.

Chuck Stone Award for Execllence in Journalism

J. Donald Dumpson - ​J. Donald Dumpson, Ph.D. is the president and CEO of Diverse Arts Solutions. He serves as minister of music and arts at Arch Street Presbyterian Church and is the founding director of the Philadelphia Heritage Chorale. He has worked as a singer-songwriter, musician and producer in collaboration with acts and organizations including Opera Philadelphia, Quincy Jones, Shirley Caesar, Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder, and countless others.

Gamble & Huff Award for Excellence in Songwriting

Colson Whitehead - Colson Whitehead is the author of six novels, including The Underground Railroad, winner of the 2016 National Book Award. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, A Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and has been published in the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper's and Granta. He has also taught as a professor at the University of Houston, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Hunter Coll